A recent study published in Kidney Medicine suggests COVID-19 patients who developed acute kidney injury (AKI) during infection stayed on dialysis for shorter durations and were less likely to die if they were vaccinated against COVID-19, compared with patients with AKI who were unvaccinated.
The research was completed by scientists at the University California-Los Angeles. Researchers assessed outcomes among 3,527 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and March 30, 2022.
AKI can be a common development in the course of severe COVID-19 infections, with the National Institutes of Health estimating 20% to 40% of critically ill patients develop AKI and require intensive care to manage the condition.
Among the participants in the present study, 972 developed acute kidney injury, with 411 (42.3%) unvaccinated and 467 (48%) having received at least two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines or one dose of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.
Unvaccinated needed more continuous renal replacement therapy
They found that 65 (15.8%) unvaccinated patients were more likely to need a type of dialysis for critically ill patients called continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), compared with 51 (10.9%) vaccinated patients.
The researchers also found unvaccinated patients had 2.56 times the odds of needing CRRT after hospital discharge, 5.54 times the risk of dying in the hospital, and 4.78 times higher risk of dying during long-term follow-up compared with vaccinated patients.
CRRT during hospitalization was significantly associated with in-hospital death (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 2.82; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.88 to 4.25) and long-term follow-up death (adjusted HR, 2.44; 95% CI, 1.73 to 3.42).
The COVID-19 vaccine is an important intervention that can decrease the chances of developing complications from the COVID-19 infection in patients hospitalized with acute kidney injuries.
“The COVID-19 vaccine is an important intervention that can decrease the chances of developing complications from the COVID-19 infection in patients hospitalized with acute kidney injuries,” Niloofar Nobakht, MD, said in a press release from UCLA. “It is important for individuals to discuss the benefits of getting vaccinated for COVID-19 with their doctors as it can decrease the chances of needing dialysis, which can severely affect the quality of life of patients and lead to further complications including death.”
The study authors also said their work further highlights the important connection between COVID-19 and AKI.
“Further studies are needed to evaluate the underlying etiologies of AKI and renal outcomes among patients admitted with COVID-19 infection so that targeted therapies and guidance on management and follow-up approaches can be developed,” they concluded. “It will therefore be important in future studies to examine the long-term outcomes of patients with long COVID symptoms and the rate of kidney function decline in COVID AKI survivors post-discharge, comparing both vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.”
